1932
0
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
  4. Volume 50, 2022
  5. Article

Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Volume 50, 2022

Tectonics of the Colorado Plateau and Its Margins

Abstract

The Cenozoic Colorado Plateau physiographic province overlies multiple Precambrian provinces. Its ∼2-km elevation rim surrounds an ∼1.6-km elevation core that is underlain by thicker crust and lithospheric mantle, with a sharp structural transition ∼100 km concentrically inboard of the physiographic boundary on all but its northeastern margin. The region was uplifted in three episodes: ∼70–50 Ma uplift above sea level driven by flat-slab subduction; ∼38–23 Ma uplift associated with voluminous regional magmatism and slab removal, and less than 20 Ma uplift associated with inboard propagation of basaltic magmatism that tracked convective erosion of the lithospheric core. Neogene uplift helped integrate the Colorado River from the Rockies at 11 Ma to the Gulf of California by ∼5 Ma. The sharp rim-to-core transition defined by geological and geophysical data sets suggests a young transient plateau that is uplifting as it shrinks to merge with surrounding regions of postorogenic extension.

  • ▪  The Colorado Plateau's iconic landscapes were shaped during its 70-million-year, still-enigmatic, tectonic evolution characterized by uplift and erosion.
  • ▪  Uplift of the Colorado Plateau from sea level took place in three episodes, the youngest of which has been ongoing for the past 20 million years.
  • ▪  Tectonism across the Colorado Plateau's nearest plate margin (the base of the plate!) is driving uplift and volcanism and enhancing its rugged landscapes.
  • ▪  The bowl-shaped Colorado Plateau province is defined by ongoing uplift and an inboard sweep of magmatism around its margins.
  • ▪  The keel of the Colorado Plateau is being thinned as the North American plate moves southwest through the underlying asthenosphere.

Keyword(s): Cenozoic uplift, Colorado Plateau, geophysical provinces, physiographic provinces, tectonics
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432
2022-05-31
2025-04-20
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/earth/50/1/annurev-earth-032320-111432.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Aldrich MJ. 1986. Tectonics of the Jemez Lineament in the Jemez Mountains and Rio Grande Rift. J. Geophys. Res. 91:B21753–62
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson JC, Karlstrom KE, Heizler MT 2021. Neogene drainage reversal and Colorado Plateau uplift in the Salt River area, Arizona, USA. Geomorphology 2021:107964
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Aslan A, Boraas-Connors M, Sprinkel DA, Becker TP, Lynds R et al. 2018. Cenozoic collapse of the eastern Uinta Mountains and drainage evolution of the Uinta Mountains region. Geosphere 14:1115–40
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Aslan A, Karlstrom KE, Kirby E, Heizler MT, Granger DE et al. 2019. Resolving time-space histories of Late Cenozoic bedrock incision along the Upper Colorado River, USA. Geomorphology 347:106855
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Astiz L, Eakins JA, Martynov VG, Cox TA, Tytell J et al. 2014. The Array Network Facility seismic bulletin: products and an unbiased view of United States seismicity. Seismol. Res. Lett. 85:3576–93
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Ballmer MD, Conrad CP, Smith EI, Johnson R 2015. Intraplate volcanism at the edges of the Colorado Plateau sustained by a combination of triggered edge-driven convection and shear-driven upwelling. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 16:366–79
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Bashir L, Gao SS, Liu KH, Mickus K. 2011. Crustal structure and evolution beneath the Colorado Plateau and the southern Basin and Range Province: results from receiver function and gravity studies. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 12:6Q06008
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Beard LS, Faulds JE 2011. Kingman Uplift, paleovalleys and extensional foundering the northwest Arizona. CRevolution 2—Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System LS Beard, KE Karlstrom, RA Young, GH Billingsley 28–37 Flagstaff, AZ: US Geol. Surv.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Becker TW, Faccenna C, Humphreys ED, Lowry AR, Miller MS. 2014. Static and dynamic support of western United States topography. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 402:234–46
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Becker TW, Lowry AR, Faccenna C, Schmandt B, Borsa A, Yu CQ. 2015. Western US intermountain seismicity caused by changes in upper mantle flow. Nature 524:7566458–61
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Beghoul N, Barazangi M. 1989. Mapping high Pn velocity beneath the Colorado Plateau constrains uplift models. J. Geophys. Res. 94:B67083–104
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Berglund HT, Sheehan AF, Murray MH, Roy M, Lowry AR et al. 2012. Distributed deformation across the Rio Grande Rift, Great Plains, and Colorado Plateau. Geology 40:23–26
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Best MG, Christiansen EH, de Silva S, Lipman PW. 2016. Slab-rollback ignimbrite flareups in the southern Great Basin and other Cenozoic American arcs: a distinct style of arc volcanism. Geosphere 12:41097–135
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Blackwell D, Richards M, Frone Z, Ruzo A, Dingwall R, Williams M 2011. Temperature-at-Depth Maps for the Conterminous US and Geothermal Resource Estimates Dallas, TX: South. Methodist Univ. Geotherm. Lab.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Bondre NR. 2003. Analysis of vesicular basalts and lava emplacement processes for application as a paleobarometer/paleoaltimeter: a discussion. J. Geol. 111:499–502
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Broermann J, Bennett RA, Kreemer C, Blewitt G, Pearthree PA. 2021. Geodetic extension across the southern Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 126:6e2020JB021355
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Brumbaugh DS. 1987. A tectonic boundary for the southern Colorado Plateau. Tectonophysics 136:125–36
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Brumbaugh DS. 2019. Seismotectonics of the Grand Wash Arizona area. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 109:62277–87
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Bursztyn N, Pederson JL, Tressler C, Mackey RD, Mitchell KJ. 2015. Rock strength along a fluvial transect of the Colorado Plateau—quantifying a fundamental control on geomorphology. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 429:90–100
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Camp VE, Pierce KL, Morgan LA 2015. Yellowstone plume trigger for Basin and Range extension, and coeval emplacement of the Nevada–Columbia Basin magmatic belt. Geosphere 11:203–25
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Cather SM 1983. Laramide Sierra uplift—evidence for major prerift uplift in central and southern New Mexico. Socorro Region II: New Mexico Geological Society 34th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook CE Chapin, JF Callender 99–101 Socorro, NM: N.M. Geol. Soc.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Cather SM, Connell SD, Chamberlin RM, McIntosh WC, Jones GE et al. 2008. The Chuska erg: paleogeomorphic and paleoclimatic implications of an Oligocene sand sea on the Colorado Plateau. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 120:13–33
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Cather SM, Chapin CE, Kelley SA. 2012. Diachronous episodes of Cenozoic erosion in southwestern North America and their relationship to surface uplift, paleoclimate, paleodrainage, and paleoaltimetry. Geosphere 8:1177–206
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Chapin CE. 2012. Origin of the Colorado Mineral Belt. Geosphere 8:28–43
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Chapin CE, Cather SM. 1981. Eocene tectonics and sedimentation in the Colorado Plateau-Rocky Mountain area. Ariz. Geol. Soc. Dig. 14:173–98
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Chapman AD, Rautela O, Shields J, Ducea MN, Saleeby J. 2020. Fate of the lower lithosphere during shallow-angle subduction: the Laramide example. GSA Today 30:4–10
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Chapman JB, Greig R, Haxel GB 2020. Geochemical evidence for an orogenic plateau in the southern U.S. and northern Mexican Cordillera during the Laramide orogeny. Geology 48:164–68
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Chapman JB, DeCelles PG. 2021. Beveling the Colorado Plateau: Early Mesozoic rift-related flexure explains erosion and anomalous deposition in the southern Cordilleran foreland basin. Tectonics 40:e2020TC006517
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Coblentz D, Chase CG, Karlstrom KE, van Wijk J. 2011. Topography, the geoid, and compensation mechanisms for the southern Rocky Mountains. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 12:4Q04002
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Coblentz D, Karlstrom KE. 2011. Tectonic geomorphometrics of the western United States: speculations on the surface expression of upper mantle processes. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 12:11Q11002
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Coblentz DD, Libarkin JC, Chase CG, Sussman AJ. 2007. Paleolithospheric structure revealed by continental geoid anomalies. Tectonophysics 443:106–20
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Coney PJ, Reynolds SJ. 1977. Cordilleran Benioff zones. Nature 270:403–6
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Cook KL, Whipple KX, Heomsath AM, Hanks TC. 2009. Rapid incision of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon—insights from channel profiles, local incision rates, and modeling of lithologic controls. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 34:7994–1010
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Copeland P, Currie CA, Lawton TF, Murphy MA 2017. Location, location, location: the variable lifespan of the Laramide orogeny. Geology 45:3223–26
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Crossey LC, Karlstrom KE, Dorsey R, Pearce J, Wan E et al. 2015. The importance of groundwater in propagating downward integration of the 6–5 Ma Colorado River system: geochemistry of springs, travertines and lacustrine carbonates of the Grand Canyon region over the past 12 million years. Geosphere 11:3660–82
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Crossey LJ, Karlstrom KE, Schmandt B, Crow R, Coleman D et al. 2016. Continental smokers couple mantle degassing and unique microbiology within continents. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 435:22–30
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Crow R, Karlstrom KE, Asmerom Y, Schmandt B, Polyak V, DuFrane SA 2011. Shrinking of the Colorado Plateau via lithospheric mantle erosion: evidence from Nd and Sr isotopes and geochronology of Neogene basalts. Geology 39:27–30
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Crow R, Karlstrom KE, Darling A, Crossey LJ, Polyak V et al. 2014. Steady incision of Grand Canyon at the million year timeframe: a case for mantle-driven differential uplift. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 397:159–73
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Crow R, Schwing J, Karlstrom KE, Heizler M, Pearthree P et al. 2021. Refining the age of the lower Colorado River, southwestern United States. Geology 49:6635–40
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Darling A, Whipple K. 2015. Geomorphic constraints on the age of the western Grand Canyon. Geosphere 11:958–76
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Davis GH, Bump AP 2009. Structural geologic evolution of the Colorado Plateau. Backbone of the Americas Shallow Subduction, Plateau Uplift, and Ridge and Terrane Collision SM Kay, VA Ramos, WR Dickinson 99–124 Boulder, CO: Geol. Soc. Am.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. DeCelles PG. 2004. Late Jurassic to Eocene evolution of the Cordilleran thrust belt and foreland basin system, western USA. Am. J. Sci. 304:2105–68
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Dickinson WR. 2013. Rejection of the lake spillover model for initial incision of the Grand Canyon, and discussion of alternatives. Geosphere 9:11–20
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Dickinson WR, Klute MA, Hayes MJ, Janecke SU, Lundin ER et al. 1988. Paleogeographic and paleotectonic setting of Laramide sedimentary basins in the central Rocky Mountain region. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 100:1023–39
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Dickinson WR, Lawton TF. 2001. Tectonic setting and sandstone petrofacies of the Bisbee basin (USA–Mexico). J. S. Am. Earth Sci. 14:475–504
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Douglass J, Meek NM, Dorn RI, Schmeecle MW. 2009. A criteria-based methodology for determining the mechanism of transverse drainage development, with application to the southwestern United States. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 121:586–98
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Douglass JC, Gootee BF, Dallegge T, Jeong A, Seong YB, Yu BY. 2020. Evidence for the overflow origin of the Grand Canyon. Geomorphology 369:107361
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Dunbar NW. 2005. Quaternary volcanism in New Mexico. N.M. Mus. Nat. Hist. Sci. Bull. 28:95–106
     [Google Scholar]
  49. Dutton CE. 1882. Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District; with Atlas Washington, DC: US Gov. Print. Off.
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Eaton GP. 2008. Epeirogeny in the southern Rocky Mountains region: evidence and origin. Geosphere 4:764–84
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Erslev EA 1993. Thrusts, back-thrusts and detachment of Rocky Mountain foreland arches. Laramide Basement Deformation in the Rocky Mountain Foreland of the Western United States CJ Schmidt, R Chase, EA Erslev 339–58 Boulder, CO: Geol. Soc. Am.
     [Google Scholar]
  52. Farmer GL, Bailley T, Elkins-Tanton LT. 2008. Mantle source volumes and the origin of the mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up in the southern Rocky Mountains, western US. Lithos 102:1–2279–94
     [Google Scholar]
  53. Faulds JE, Schreiber BC, Langenheim VE, Hinz NH, Shaw TH et al. 2016. Paleogeographic implications of late Miocene acustrine and nonmarine evaporite deposits in the Lake Mead region: immediate precursors to the Colorado River. Geosphere 12:3721–67
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Fenneman NM. 1928. Physiographic divisions of the United States. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 18:4261–353
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Fenneman NM. 1930. Physiographic Provinces of the United States Washington, DC: US Geol. Surv.
     [Google Scholar]
  56. Flowers RM, Wernicke BP, Farley KA. 2008. Unroofing, incision, and uplift history of the southwestern Colorado Plateau from apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 120:571–87
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Gao W, Grand SP, Baldridge WS, Wilson D, West M et al. 2004. Upper mantle convection beneath the central Rio Grande rift imaged by P and S wave tomography. J. Geophys. Res. 109:B3B03305
     [Google Scholar]
  58. Gastil G, Wracher M, Strand G, Kear LL, Eley D et al. 1992. The tectonic history of the southwestern United States and Sonora, Mexico, during the past 100 m.y. Tectonics 11:990–97
     [Google Scholar]
  59. Gilbert H. 2012. Crustal structure and signatures of recent tectonism as influenced by ancient terranes in the western United States. Geosphere 8:141–57
     [Google Scholar]
  60. Gonzales DA. 2015. New U–Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on the late Mesozoic to Cenozoic plutonic rocks in the western San Juan Mountains. Mt. Geol. 52:25–14
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Hamblin WK. 1984. Direction of absolute movement along the boundary faults of the Basin and Range–Colorado Plateau margin. Geology 12:2116–19
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Hansen SM, Dueker K, Schmandt B. 2015. Thermal classification of lithospheric discontinuities beneath USArray. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 431:36–47
     [Google Scholar]
  63. Hansen SM, Dueker KG, Stachnik JC, Aster RC, Karlstrom KE. 2013. A rootless Rockies—support and lithospheric structure of the Colorado Rocky Mountains inferred from CREST and TA seismic data. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 14:2670–95
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Hansen WR. 1986. Neogene tectonics and geomorphology of the eastern Uinta Mountains in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming Prof. Pap. 1356, US Geol. Surv. Washington, DC:
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Heitmann EO, Hyland EG, Schoettle-Greene P, Brigham CAP, Huntington KW. 2021. Rise of the Colorado Plateau: a synthesis of paleoelevation constraints from the region and a path forward using temperature-based elevation proxies. Front. Earth Sci. 9: https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.648605
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  66. Henry CD, John DA. 2013. Magmatism, ash-flow tuffs, and calderas of the ignimbrite flareup in the western Nevada volcanic field, Great Basin, USA. Geosphere 9:4951–1008
     [Google Scholar]
  67. Herrmann RB, Benz H, Ammon C. 2011. Monitoring the earthquake source process in North America. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 101:2609–25
     [Google Scholar]
  68. Hoover WF, Page FZ, Schulze DJ, Kitajima K, Valley JW 2020. Massive fluid influx beneath the Colorado Plateau (USA) related to slab removal and diatreme emplacement: evidence from oxygen isotope zoning in eclogite xenoliths. J. Petrol. 61:11–12egaa102
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Humphreys E, Hessler E, Dueker K, Farmer GL, Erslev E, Atwater T 2003. How Laramide-age hydration of the North American Lithosphere by the Farallon slab controlled subsequent activity in the western United States. Int. Geol. Rev. 45:575–95
     [Google Scholar]
  70. Humphreys G. 1995. Post-Laramide removal of the Farallon slab, western United States. Geology 23:987–90
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Huntington KW, Wernicke BP, Eiler JM. 2010. The influence of climate change and uplift on Colorado Plateau paleotemperatures from carbonate clumped isotope thermometry. Tectonics 29:TC3005
     [Google Scholar]
  72. Ives JC. 1861. Report upon the Colorado River of the West, Explored in 1857 and 1858 by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, Corps of Engineers, Under the Direction of the Office of Exploration and Surveys Washington, DC: US Gov. Print. Off.
     [Google Scholar]
  73. Jones CH, Mahan KH, Butcher LA, Levandowski WB, Farmer GL. 2015. Continental uplift through crustal hydration. Geology 43:4355–58
     [Google Scholar]
  74. Karlstrom KE, Coblentz D, Dueker K, Ouimet W, Kirby E et al. 2011. Mantle-driven dynamic uplift of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau and its surface response: toward a unified hypothesis. Lithosphere 4:13–22
     [Google Scholar]
  75. Karlstrom KE, Crossey LJ, Embid E, Crow R, Heizler M et al. 2017. Cenozoic incision history of the Little Colorado River: its role in carving Grand Canyon and onset of rapid incision in the past ca. 2 Ma in the Colorado River system. Geosphere 13:149–81
     [Google Scholar]
  76. Karlstrom KE, Crow R, Crossey LJ, Coblentz D, van Wijk J. 2008. Model for tectonically driven incision of the less than 6 Ma Grand Canyon. Geology 36:11835–38
     [Google Scholar]
  77. Karlstrom KE, Jacobson CE, Sundell KE, Eyster A, Blakey R et al. 2020. Evaluating the Shinumo-Sespe drainage connection: arguments against the “old” (70–17 Ma) Grand Canyon models for Colorado Plateau drainage evolution. Geosphere 16:61425–56
     [Google Scholar]
  78. Karlstrom KE, Lee JP, Kelley SA, Crow RS, Crossey LJ et al. 2014. Formation of the Grand Canyon 5 to 6 million years ago through integration of older palaeocanyons. Nat. Geosci. 7:239–44
     [Google Scholar]
  79. Keller GR, Braile LW, Morgan P. 1979. Crustal structure, geophysical models and contemporary tectonism of the Colorado Plateau. Tectonophysics 61:131–47
     [Google Scholar]
  80. Keller GR, Khan MA, Morgan P, Wendlandt RF, Baldridge WS et al. 1991. A comparative study of the Rio Grande and Kenya rifts. Tectonophysics 197:355–71
     [Google Scholar]
  81. Kelley VC. 1955. Regional Tectonics of the Colorado Plateau and Relationship to the Origin and Distribution of Uranium Albuquerque, NM: Univ. N.M. Press
     [Google Scholar]
  82. Kreemer C, Blewitt G, Hammond WC. 2010. Evidence for an active shear zone in southern Nevada linking the Wasatch fault to the Eastern California shear zone.. Geology 38:5475–78
     [Google Scholar]
  83. Kreemer C, Blewitt G, Klein EC. 2014. A geodetic plate motion and Global Strain Rate Model. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 15:103849–89
     [Google Scholar]
  84. Lazear G, Karlstrom KE, Aslan A, Kelley S 2013. Denudation and flexural isostatic response of the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountain region since 10 Ma. Geosphere 9:4792–814
     [Google Scholar]
  85. Leary RJ, Umhoefer P, Smith ME, Riggs N. 2017. A three-sided orogen: a new tectonic model for Ancestral Rocky Mountain uplift and basin development. Geology 45:735–38
     [Google Scholar]
  86. Levander A, Schmandt B, Miller MS, Liu K, Karlstrom KE et al. 2011. Continuing Colorado Plateau uplift by delamination-style convective lithospheric downwelling. Nature 472:7344461–65
     [Google Scholar]
  87. Lekić V, Fischer KM. 2014. Contrasting lithospheric signatures across the western United States revealed by Sp receiver functions. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 402:90–98
     [Google Scholar]
  88. Leonard EM. 2002. Geomorphic and tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic warping of the Colorado piedmont. Geology 30:7595–98
     [Google Scholar]
  89. Leopold EB, Zaborac-Reed S. 2019. Pollen evidence of floristic turnover forced by cool aridity during the Oligocene in Colorado. Geosphere 15:1254–94
     [Google Scholar]
  90. Levandowski W, Jones CH, Butcher LA, Mahan KH. 2018. Lithospheric density models reveal evidence for Cenozoic uplift of the Colorado Plateau and Great Plains by lower-crustal hydration. Geosphere 14:31150–64
     [Google Scholar]
  91. Levandowski W, Jones CH, Shen W, Ritzwoller MH, Schulte-Pelkum V. 2014. Origins of topography in the western US: mapping crustal and upper mantle density variations using a uniform seismic velocity model. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 119:32375–96
     [Google Scholar]
  92. Libarkin JC, Chase CG. 2003. Timing of Colorado Plateau uplift: initial constraints from vesicular basalt-derived paleoelevations. Geology 31:191–92
     [Google Scholar]
  93. Lipman PW. 2021. Raising the West: Mid-Cenozoic Colorado-plano related to subvolcanic batholith assembly in the Southern Rocky Mountains (USA)?. Geology 49:1107–11
     [Google Scholar]
  94. Liu L, Gurnis M, Seton M, Saleeby J, Müller RD, Jackson JM. 2010. The role of oceanic plateau subduction in the Laramide orogeny. Nat. Geosci. 3:353–57
     [Google Scholar]
  95. Livaccari RF, Burke K, Sengoer AM 1981. Was the Laramide orogeny related to subduction of an oceanic plateau?. Nature 289:276–78
     [Google Scholar]
  96. Livaccari RF, Perry FV. 1993. Isotopic evidence for preservation of Cordilleran lithospheric mantle during the Sevier-Laramide orogeny, western United States. Geology 21:719–22
     [Google Scholar]
  97. Lockridge JS, Fouch MJ, Arrowsmith JR. 2012. Seismicity within Arizona during the deployment of the EarthScope USArray Transportable Array. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 102:1850–63
     [Google Scholar]
  98. Lowry AR, Pérez-Gussinyé M. 2011. The role of crustal quartz in controlling Cordilleran deformation. Nature 471:353–57
     [Google Scholar]
  99. Lowry AR, Smith RB. 1995. Strength and rheology of the western US Cordillera. J. Geophys. Res. 100:B917947–63
     [Google Scholar]
  100. Magnani MB, Miller KC, Levander A, Karlstrom KE. 2004. The Yavapai-Mazatzal boundary: a long-lived tectonic element in the lithosphere of southwestern North America. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 116:1137–42
     [Google Scholar]
  101. Marshak S, Domrois S, Abert C, Larson T, Pavlis G et al. 2017. The basement revealed: tectonic insight from a digital elevation model of the Great Unconformity, USA cratonic platform. Geology 45:391–94
     [Google Scholar]
  102. Marshak S, Karlstrom K, Timmons JM. 2000. Inversion of Proterozoic extensional faults: an explanation for the pattern of Laramide and Ancestral Rockies intracratonic deformation, United States. Geology 28:8735–38
     [Google Scholar]
  103. McIntosh WC, Chapin CE, Ratté JC, Sutter JF. 1992. Time-stratigraphic framework for the Eocene-Oligocene Mogollon-Datil volcanic field, southwest New Mexico. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 104:851–71
     [Google Scholar]
  104. McMillan ME, Heller PL, Wing SL. 2006. History and causes of post-Laramide relief in the Rocky Mountain orogenic plateau. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 118:393–405
     [Google Scholar]
  105. Morgan P. 2003. Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains uplift and erosion. Cenozoic Systems of the Rocky Mountain Region RG Raynolds, RM Flores 1–31 Denver, CO: Rocky Mountain SEPM
     [Google Scholar]
  106. Murray KD, Murray MH, Sheehan AF. 2019. Active deformation near the Rio Grande Rift and Colorado Plateau as inferred from continuous Global Positioning System measurements. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 124:2166–83
     [Google Scholar]
  107. Mutschler FE, Larson EE, Bruce RM. 1987. Laramide and younger magmatism in Colorado—new petrologic and tectonic variations on old themes. Colo. Sch. Mines Q. 82:41–47
     [Google Scholar]
  108. Nakai J, Sheehan A, Bilek S. 2017. Seismicity of the Rocky Mountains and Rio Grande rift from the EarthScope Transportable Array and CREST temporary seismic networks, 2008–2010. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 122:2173–92
     [Google Scholar]
  109. NAVDAT 2014. The western North America volcanic and intrusive rock database. NAVDAT https://www.navdat.org/index.cfm
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Nereson A, Stroud J, Karlstrom KE, Heizler M, McIntosh W 2013. Dynamic topography of the western Great Plains: geomorphic and 40Ar/39Ar evidence for mantle-driven uplift associated with the Jemez lineament of NE New Mexico and SE Colorado. Geosphere 9:521–45
     [Google Scholar]
  111. Obrebski M, Allen RM, Pollitz F, Hung SH 2011. Lithosphere–asthenosphere interaction beneath the western United States from the joint inversion of body-wave traveltimes and surface-wave phase velocities. Geophys. J. Int. 185:21003–21
     [Google Scholar]
  112. Ott RF, Whipple KX, Soest MV. 2018. Incision history of the Verde Valley region and implications for uplift of the Colorado Plateau (central Arizona). Geosphere 14:41690–709
     [Google Scholar]
  113. Pazzaglia FJ, Gardner TW, Merritts DJ 1998. Bedrock fluvial incision and longitudinal profile development over geologic time scales determined by fluvial terraces. Rivers over Rock: Fluvial Processes in Bedrock Channels KJ Tinkler, E Wohl 207–35 Washington, DC: Am. Geophys. Union
     [Google Scholar]
  114. Pederson JL, Cragun WS, Hidy AJ, Rittenour TM, Gosse JC. 2013. Colorado River chronostratigraphy at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, and the Colorado Plateau bull's-eye of incision. Geology 41:427–30. Comment. 2013. Geology 41:12e303
     [Google Scholar]
  115. Pederson JL, Mackley RD, Eddleman JL. 2002. Colorado Plateau uplift and erosion evaluated using GIS. GSA Today 12:4–10
     [Google Scholar]
  116. Phillips WS, Mayeda KM, Malagnini L. 2014. How to invert multi-band, regional phase amplitudes for 2-D attenuation and source parameters: tests using the USArray. Pure Appl. Geophys. 171:3469–84
     [Google Scholar]
  117. Plank T, Forsyth DW. 2016. Thermal structure and melting conditions in the mantle beneath the Basin and Range province from seismology and petrology. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 17:41312–38
     [Google Scholar]
  118. Porter R, Hoisch T, Holt WE. 2017. The role of lower-crustal hydration in the tectonic evolution of the Colorado Plateau. Tectonophysics 712:221–31
     [Google Scholar]
  119. Powell JW. 1875. Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries Washington, DC: US Gov. Print. Off.
     [Google Scholar]
  120. Raynolds RG, Johnson KR, Ellis B, Dechesne M, Miller IM 2007. Earth history along Colorado's Front Range: salvaging geologic data in the suburbs and sharing it with the citizens. GSA Today 17:12
     [Google Scholar]
  121. Reiter M, Mansure AJ, Shearer C. 1979. Geothermal characteristics of the Colorado Plateau. Tectonophysics 61:1–3183–95
     [Google Scholar]
  122. Ricketts JW, Karlstrom KE, Priewisch A, Crossey LJ, Polyak VJ, Asmerom Y. 2014. Quaternary extension in the Rio Grande rift at elevated strain rates recorded in travertine deposits, central New Mexico. Lithosphere 6:13–16
     [Google Scholar]
  123. Ricketts JW, Kelley SA, Karlstrom KE, Schmandt B, Donahue MS, van Wijk J. 2016. Synchronous opening of the Rio Grande rift ∼20–10 Ma supported by apatite (U-Th)/He and fission-track thermochronology, and evaluation of possible driving mechanisms. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 128:397–424
     [Google Scholar]
  124. Rønnevik C, Ksienzyk AK, Fossen H, Jacobs J. 2017. Thermal evolution and exhumation history of the Uncompahgre Plateau (northeastern Colorado Plateau), based on apatite fission track and (U-Th)-He thermochronology and zircon U-Pb dating. Geosphere 13:518–37
     [Google Scholar]
  125. Rosenburg R, Kirby E, Aslan A, Karlstrom K, Heizler M, Ouimet W. 2014. Late Miocene erosion and evolution of topography along the western slope of the Colorado Rockies. Geosphere 10:641–63
     [Google Scholar]
  126. Roy M, Gold S, Johnson A, Osuna Orozco R, Holtzman BK, Gaherty J 2016. Macroscopic coupling of deformation and melt migration at continental interiors, with applications to the Colorado Plateau. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 121:3762–81
     [Google Scholar]
  127. Roy M, Jordan TJ, Pederson J 2009. Colorado Plateau magmatism and uplift by warming of heterogeneous lithosphere. Nature 459:978–82
     [Google Scholar]
  128. Sahagian D, Proussevitch A, Carlson W 2002. Timing of Colorado Plateau uplift: initial constraints from vesicular basalt-derived paleoelevations. Geology 30:9807–10
     [Google Scholar]
  129. Saleeby J. 2003. Segmentation of the Laramide slab—evidence from the southern Sierra Nevada region. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 115:6655–68
     [Google Scholar]
  130. Schmandt B, Dueker K, Humphreys E, Hansen S. 2012. Hot mantle upwelling across the 660 beneath Yellowstone. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 331:224–36
     [Google Scholar]
  131. Schmandt B, Humphreys E. 2010. Complex subduction and small-scale convection revealed by body-wave tomography of the western United States upper mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 297:435–45
     [Google Scholar]
  132. Schmandt B, Lin F. 2014. P and S wave tomography of the mantle beneath the United States. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41:6342–49
     [Google Scholar]
  133. Schmandt B, Lin F, Karlstrom KE 2015. Distinct crustal isostasy trends east and west of the Rocky Mountain Front. Geophys. Res. Lett. 42:10290–98
     [Google Scholar]
  134. Schulze DJ, Davis DW, Helmstaedt H, Joy B. 2015. Timing of the Cenozoic “Great Hydration” event beneath the Colorado Plateau: Th-Pb dating of monazite in Navajo volcanic field metamorphic eclogite xenoliths. Geology 43:8727–30
     [Google Scholar]
  135. Sheehan AF, Jones CH, Savage MK, Ozalaybey S, Schneider JM 1997. Contrasting lithospheric structure between the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin: initial results from Colorado Plateau-Great Basin PASSCAL experiment. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24:2609–12
     [Google Scholar]
  136. Shen W, Ritzwoller MH. 2016. Crustal and uppermost mantle structure beneath the United States. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 121:4306–42
     [Google Scholar]
  137. Simmons NA, Myers SC, Morency C, Chiang A, Knapp DR. 2021. SPiRaL: a multi-resolution global tomography model of seismic wave speeds and radial anisotropy variations in the crust and mantle. Geophys. J. Int. 227:1366–91
     [Google Scholar]
  138. Sine C, Wilson D, Gao W, Grand S, Aster R et al. 2008. Mantle structure beneath the western edge of the Colorado Plateau.. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35:L10303
     [Google Scholar]
  139. Smith D, Connelly JN, Manser K, Moser DE, Housh TB et al. 2004. Evolution of Navajo eclogites and hydration of the mantle wedge below the Colorado Plateau, southwestern United States. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 5:Q04005
     [Google Scholar]
  140. Smith RB, Bruhn RL. 1984. Intraplate extensional tectonics of the eastern Basin-Range: inferences on structural style from seismic reflection data, regional tectonics, and thermal-mechanical models of brittle-ductile deformation. J. Geophys. Res. 89:B75733–62
     [Google Scholar]
  141. Spencer JE. 1996. Uplift of the Colorado Plateau due to lithosphere attenuation during Laramide low-angle subduction. J. Geophys. Res. 101:B613595–609
     [Google Scholar]
  142. Suppe J, Powell C, Berry R 1975. Regional topography, seismicity, Quaternary volcanism, and the present-day tectonics of the western United States. Am. J. Sci. 275:397–436
     [Google Scholar]
  143. Thacker JO, Kelley SA, Karlstrom KE. 2021. Late Cretaceous–Recent low-temperature cooling history and tectonic analysis of the Zuni Mountains, west-central New Mexico. Tectonics 40:e2020TC006643
     [Google Scholar]
  144. Thompson GA, Zoback ML. 1979. Regional geophysics of the Colorado Plateau. Tectonophysics 61:1–3149–81
     [Google Scholar]
  145. Timmons MJ, Karlstrom KE, Dehler CM, Geissman JW, Heizler MT. 2001. Proterozoic multistage (∼1.1 and ∼0.8 Ga) extension in the Grand Canyon Supergroup and establishment of northwest and north-south tectonic grains in the southwestern United States. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 113:2163–80
     [Google Scholar]
  146. Tweto O, Sims PK. 1963. Precambrian ancestry of the Colorado mineral belt. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 74:991–1014
     [Google Scholar]
  147. USGS (US Geol. Surv.) 2018. Faults Quaternary Fault and Fold Database for the United States Reston, VA: retrieved Aug. 8, 2021. https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/earthquake-hazards/faults
    [Google Scholar]
  148. van Wijk J, Koning D, Axen G, Coblentz D, Gragg E, Sion B. 2018. Tectonic subsidence, geoid analysis, and the Miocene-Pliocene unconformity in the Rio Grande rift, southwestern United States: implications for mantle upwelling as a driving force for rift opening. Geosphere 14:2684–709
     [Google Scholar]
  149. van Wijk JW, Baldridge WS, Van Hunen J, Goes S, Aster R et al. 2010. Small-scale convection at the edge of the Colorado Plateau: implication for topography, magmatism, and evolution of the Proterozoic lithosphere. Geology 38:611–14
     [Google Scholar]
  150. Walcott CD. 1889. A study of a line of displacement in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in northern Arizona. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 1:49–64
     [Google Scholar]
  151. Walk CJ, Karlstrom KE, Crow RS, Heizler MT. 2019. Birth and evolution of the Virgin River fluvial system: ∼1 km of post–5 Ma uplift of the western Colorado Plateau. Geosphere 15:759–82
     [Google Scholar]
  152. Wannamaker PE, Hasterok DP, Johnston JM, Stodt JA, Hall DB et al. 2008. Lithospheric dismemberment and magmatic processes of the Great Basin–Colorado Plateau transition, Utah, implied from magnetotellurics. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 9:5Q05019
     [Google Scholar]
  153. Wenrich KJ, Billingsley GH, Blackerby BA. 1995. Spatial migration and compositional changes of Miocene-Quaternary magmatism in the western Grand Canyon. J. Geophys. Res. 100:B610417–40
     [Google Scholar]
  154. Wernicke B. 2011. The California River and its role in carving Grand Canyon. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 123:1288–316
     [Google Scholar]
  155. Wernicke B, Axen GJ. 1988. On the role of isostasy in the evolution of normal fault systems. Geology 16:848–51
     [Google Scholar]
  156. West M, Ni J, Baldridge WS, Wilson D, Aster R et al. 2004. Crust and upper mantle shear wave structure of the southwest United States: implications for rifting and support for high elevation. J. Geophys. Res. 109:B3B03309
     [Google Scholar]
  157. Whitmeyer SJ, Karlstrom KE. 2007. Tectonic model for the Proterozoic growth of North America. Geosphere 3:220–59
     [Google Scholar]
  158. Wilson D, Aster R, Ni J, Grand S, West M et al. 2005. Imaging the seismic structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the Great Plains, Rio Grande Rift, and Colorado Plateau using receiver functions. J. Geophys. Res. 110:B5B05306
     [Google Scholar]
  159. Winn C, Karlstrom KE, Shuster DK, Kelley S, Fox M 2017. 6 Ma age of carving westernmost Grand Canyon: reconciling geologic data with combined AFT, (U-Th)/He, and 4He/3He thermochronologic data. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 474:257–71
     [Google Scholar]
  160. Wolf LW, Cipar JJ. 1993. Through thick and thin: a new model for the Colorado Plateau from seismic refraction data from Pacific to Arizona crustal experiment. J. Geophys. Res. 98:B1119881–94
     [Google Scholar]
  161. Wong IG, Humphrey JR. 1989. Contemporary seismicity, faulting, and the state of stress in the Colorado Plateau. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 101:1127–46
     [Google Scholar]
  162. Yonkee WA, Weil AB. 2015. Tectonic evolution of the Sevier and Laramide belts within the North American Cordillera orogenic system. Earth-Sci. Rev. 150:531–93
     [Google Scholar]
  163. Young RA, Hartman JH. 2014. Paleogene rim gravel of Arizona: age and significance of the Music Mountain Formation. Geosphere 10:5870–91
     [Google Scholar]
  164. Zaborac-Reed SJ, Leopold EB 2016. Determining the paleoclimate and elevation of the late Eocene Florissant flora: support from the coexistence approach. Can. J. Earth Sci. 53:565–73
     [Google Scholar]
  165. Zandt G, Ammon CJ. 1995. Continental crust composition constrained by measurements of crustal Poisson's ratio. Nature 374:152–54
     [Google Scholar]
  166. Zimmerer MJ, Lafferty J, Coble MA. 2016. The eruptive and magmatic history of the youngest pulse of volcanism at Valles caldera: implications for successful dating late Quaternary eruptions. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 310:50–57
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432
Loading
Tectonics of the Colorado Plateau and Its Margins
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 50, 295 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-111432
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error